Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Dream

The room was dark.My wife sighed softly beside me as I slowly surfaced from a deep sleep.I rolled over onto my elbow and looked at the clock, 5:45 a.m. glowed digitally back at me.In my minds eye I could still see what I had been dreaming about and I settled back on my pillow to examine my thoughts.In my dream I was designing a new fly, something that would revolutionize how streamer flies are made and fished.Oh, of course, like most flies, it borrowed successful ideas from other patterns but put them together in a new way. As I lay thinking about it I realized this might just work.My mind raced with the possibilities!The 6 a.m. alarm went off and I hit the snooze button so I could concentrate on my great idea.The more I thought about it the more feasible this fly style seemed.I had to get downstairs to my fly tying bench to see if I could tie what was in my head.I flipped on the lights and plugged in the kettle to get some hot water for the French Press.First I sketched out a rough idea of how the fly should look and by that time the water was boiling.I put fresh ground coffee in the press and poured a steaming brew.

The sketch looked great and my ideas began to solidify on the necessary steps and the sequence that would be required to get this fly tied.Carrying my fresh coffee into the tying room I began to search through the drawers for the correct hooks and materials to get the job done.In tying any new pattern it is important to have a plan of the order that the materials are attached to the hook shank or you may leave out a critical component and not get your desired results.I clamped a hook into the jaws of my Renzetti vice and started winding on the thread.Thirty-five minutes and two cups of coffee later my new creation was finished.It looked awesome!I needed to get up to the lake to see how it worked in the water and, most importantly, how the fish would respond to it.As I drove to the lake my head was full of imagined savage strikes and big fish on the line. Surely this would be a new Lefty’s Deceiver or Clouser Minnow.I would be famous like Lefty and Bob.My mind was in full overdrive.

To make a long story, short.My new wonder fly was a dud.It didn’t swim right at all and it twisted my leader too.I did have a fish follow it but, that was it.Was I disappointed, devastated or disillusioned?Hell no!I had a blast trying to figure out this new pattern, with a few tweaks it might still work well and there were fish around.I tied on a Clouser and caught Stripers and Largemouth Bass one after another for the next two hours.Nothing was over a pound, but it was great fun and a great way to spend a couple of hours on my day off.Keep dreamin’!